A few days back, I was accompanying my parents for a social gathering where I met a school friend who had also come with his parents.
When I asked him, how's life, his instant response was, I am now doing Baby Sitting of my parents.
His statement may have been a reflex response but then it was somewhat of a reality. My immediate response to him was, great, join the club.
While we all talk about Active Ageing, Ageing in Place, Lifelong Learning etc but then to what extent? In my opinion there comes a point in time when we lose interest or simply don't have the bandwidth to start learning new hobbies or become technology savy.
While on one hand the concept of 'Age is just a number' is getting quite popular but then, how do we convince a 90 year old child to suddenly start enjoying bungee jumping or start using AI.
Do older people not become children again after a certain age? Do our parents not stop listening to children and try to do the opposite, the same way we did when we were young? Do they not spend their days day-dreaming or living in their own world? Do they not become stubborn and defiant?
Ageing process is a scientific formula because after a point the concepts of elasticity and plasticity becomes a reality. Some aspects of our behaviour and nature gets back to its own basics after a particular situation but then beyond a point it becomes irreversible.
The job profile of a babysitter for parents is quite interesting and at the same time demanding. In my opinion, the term Caregiving itself sounds like a forced burden whereas un-paid caregiving is all about love, respect and responsibility.
Caring for family is not a 'zero-sum game' where one party has to lose for the other to win because with family the fundamentals are directly proportional i.e. either everyone wins or everyone loses.
Pankaj Mehrotra
